Modern printers, both commercial and non-commercial, generally render images on paper in response to information communicated from a computer. They include a print engine which performs the physical act of printing, including feeding the paper and printing the image on the paper. For non-commercial printers, which are those generally produced for home or small-business use, the printer is the print engine and is usually coupled to a general purpose computer from which the documents to be printed are supplied. Because non-commercial printers are coupled to general purpose computers, software can be placed on the general purpose computer enabling the non-commercial printers to offer many of the automated features offered by commercial printers.
In contrast to the non-commercial printers, commercial printers, which are generally used by commercial print shops, can print at a faster rate and higher volume. A general diagram of a typical known commercial printer is shown in FIG. 1 and indicated by reference number 1. The printer 1 basically includes a print engine 8, a dedicated computer 2 and, if necessary, an interface 5. The dedicated computer is coupled to the interface via computer coupling 4 and the interface is coupled to the print engine via interface coupling 6. If the interface is not needed, the dedicated computer 2 is coupled directly to the print engine 8 via the computer coupling 4. The print engine 8 performs the physical act of printing, as does the non-commercial printer. However, the commercial printer's print engine 8 often offers additional physical capabilities such as, duplexing, collating, stapling and binding. Commercial printers 1 generally include a dedicated computer 2 that is used solely to operate and control the print engine. This dedicated computer 2 generally includes a processor, memory, and input and output mechanisms and offers such automated features relating to the print job. The dedicated computer may also be connected to a network such as a LAN, an intranet or the Internet. In some cases, because of various incompatibilities between the dedicated computer 2 and the print engine 8, an interface 5 is needed so that these components can communicate with each other. Hereinafter, unless referring specifically only to a commercial printer, the term “print engine” will be used to denote both a non-commercial printer and the print engine of commercial printer.
Many of the commercial and non-commercial printers are capable of printing many types of print jobs. A print job includes both the documents that are to be printed and the printing instructions associated with those documents. The printing instructions (the “job ticket”) may specify almost any attribute the printed document is to have which, at a minimum, includes the name of the print job (the “job name”) and the number of copies to be printed. The job ticket may also include the type of ink (“toner”), paper type or font to be used (font names may also be part of the print job itself), and may be specified by a customer, other individual, the printer or may be mandated by the type of print job. The job ticket may be written or printed on paper, stored electronically or optically on a portable memory apparatus, such as a disk, or stored in the memory of a dedicated or general purpose computer.
Because different print jobs may require different types of toner, some printers are capable of printing with a variety of toner types. These “multi-toner” printers enable printing for almost every conceivable purpose, application and industry and are limited only by the types of toner available. The almost limitless range of colors available enable printing for virtually any type of commercial, personal, or artistic endeavor. Additionally, toner is available in magnetically-readable form which allows magnetically-readable characters to be printed. Types of toner include, but are not limited to, toners of various colors and toner in magnetically-readable and non-magnetically readable form, which may also come in various colors.
In order to accommodate the many different types of toner, various methods and mechanisms have been devised. For instance, many non-commercial printers, such as personal laser printers, are adapted to use exchangeable toner cartridges that may each contain a different type of toner. In another example, some commercial printers are adapted to use interchangeable toner stations, wherein each toner station contains a different type of toner. In some cases, each toner station may be dedicated to a single type of toner.
A desirable property for printers is the ability to determine the type of toner installed in the printer. This property is particularly desirable for printers that print with both magnetically-readable and non-magnetically-readable toner. Magnetically-readable toner is used to create documents that will be read using some type of magnetic ink character recognition (“MICR”) method, often without the aid of human intervention. These MICR documents include financial documents such as checks. Because these MICR documents will be read magnetically, it is crucial that magnetically-readable toner (“MICR toner”) be used when the MICR documents are printed. Additionally, because MICR toner is significantly more expensive than non-magnetically-readable toner, it is also important that documents that do not have to be magnetically read are not printed with MICR toner.
To identify the toner installed in a printer, some methods involve identifying the toner station installed in the printer. This method is generally reliable because toner cartridges for non-commercial printers contain only one type of toner and toner stations for commercial printers are usually dedicated to a single type of toner. Therefore, identifying the toner cartridge or toner station effectively identifies the toner. One method for determining the type of toner station or cartridge installed in a printer is, of course, visual inspection by a human. While this method may sometimes be possible for non-commercial printers, this method is often not practical for commercial printers because visual access to the toner station may be difficult. Additionally, people often forget to make such an inspection, particularly in rushed or otherwise stressed situations. In the case of a large print job, many pages may be printed and wasted before the incorrect toner is identified, if ever. Another known method for use with printers that use exchangeable toner stations includes visual inspection by a laser scanner. U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,816 (the “'816 patent”) discloses a method that uses a barcode to identify the type of toner which is placed on each toner station and a laser scanner placed on the printer to read the barcode. When the toner station is coupled to the printer, the laser scanner optically reads the barcode and a processor matches the barcode reading with entries in a table to identify the coupled toner station. Unfortunately, this method requires the use of an expensive laser scanner.
A method for determining the type of toner installed in a printer that overcomes these shortcomings is disclosed in U.S. patent application entitled: “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING TONER,” inventors, Friedrich et al., filed concurrently with and incorporated by reference into this disclosure (the “Friedrich disclosure”). The method is implemented by a toner identification apparatus which identifies the toner station installed in a printer and includes a toner identification module, a display device, and an input device. A job ticket algorithm determines whether the installed toner station is the correct toner station for a given job selection (job ticket). Additionally, if the toner station installed in the printer contains MICR toner, the job station algorithm mandates a security procedure that must be carried out in order for printing to be allowed. In response to the job ticket algorithm, the toner station creates a control signal that provides instructions to the print regarding whether to allow a selected print job to print.
Another desirable property for printers is the ability to distinguish for special treatment print jobs that use certain toner for special treatment. Known printers either immediately allow all print jobs to print or subject all print jobs to the same pre-printing procedures. However, in some cases, it is important to distinguish print jobs using certain types of toner because these print jobs need to be given additional attention. This additional attention may be as simple as reviewing the attributes of the print job before printing, or may involve a more complicated set of procedures, including security precautions (such as entering a password or obtaining authorization), verification of the job attributes, and identification of the installed toner. In one example, print jobs using MICR toner require additional attention. Not only do MICR print jobs require a specific toner (MICR toner), in addition, because these print jobs create instruments that can distribute funds, it is important to ensure that the job attributes are correct because these instruments will be read magnetically. Therefore, extra procedures, such as verifying the job attributes and providing extra security measures are extremely beneficial.